Can EMS agencies keep up the ‘cost of readiness?’ Why we’re working to tell their stories
It’s not a new diagnosis. Rising costs are not a new issue facing EMS organizations.
The symptoms have gradually worsened for years. If emergency medical service providers don’t get a financial lifeline soon, rising costs could prove terminal for many of them.
The Butler Eagle has spent decades reporting on the struggles and the efforts to throw lifelines to these agencies. But despite the task forces formed, the training provided for future EMTs and the countless conversations about the issue, EMS providers remain in a precarious situation.
Our more recent experiences with EMS agencies struggling have prompted the Eagle to launch a new series of intentional journalism. Our series, called “Checkup: The state of emergency medical services in Butler County,” launches today, and it will share the state of emergency medical services in Butler County, what’s been done in attempt to preserve the services and what the future looks like.
Doug Dick, chief of Superior Ambulance Service, likened the situation to being on “life support.”
“They’re doing everything under their power and thinking outside the box of how to make ends meet to keep the doors open,” he said of EMS providers.
The Butler Eagle staff has watched firsthand as leaders of local EMS agencies have presented their predicament to municipal leaders and asked for the little funding that state law allows for municipalities in Butler County to provide — a half mill EMS tax.
Some have agreed; others have not.
And even if everyone said yes, leaders at agencies like Harmony EMS say it’s still not enough to teeter the scale in a favorable enough direction. The costs keep rising rapidly, while revenue more slowly climbs.
Vehicle insurance and health care costs have reached the point of increasing by 20% to 25% each year. The cost for equipment is also rising drastically. For instance, according to Butler Ambulance Service operations supervisor Nathan Bacher, the cost to purchase an ambulance has increased by $30,000 — about 24% — in just two years.
Meanwhile, revenue hasn’t come close to keeping up. Agencies’ major source of revenue from patients served — insurance reimbursements — are only increasing at a fraction of the rate expenses are. Reimbursements from Medicare, the most common reimbursement ambulance services locally receive, rose 1.32% over the last year.
Other sources of revenue, such as local EMS taxes, service memberships and municipal contributions, tend to remain static over the short term. Meanwhile, the success of campaigns to solicit donations can vary widely and are subject to the changing economic circumstances residents face.
All things considered, EMS providers are looking to a future where considerations beyond revenue — things like structural changes, increased resource sharing and even reduced service — may become necessary just to remain viable and able to help communities at all.
Everyone wants to know there’s speedy, available help on the way in an emergency. But that “cost of readiness” is high. How elected leaders at a local, state and national level, along with EMS agencies and the communities they serve, react in the coming months and years will determine what emergency responses look like in Butler County.
We hope you’ll follow along as we look at the state of EMS in Butler County and consider what you’d like the future of emergency responses to look like in Butler County.
We’ll find out: Can EMS agencies sustain the “cost of readiness?” And who is ready to step up and help?
— TL & JP
